SOUTH CAROLINA STUDIES: BRINGING THE GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE DOWN TO EARTH IN THE STUDENTS' BACKYARD

Geologic time as typically presented in textbooks is usually a very difficult concept for middle school students to grasp because of the abstract nature of the subject and the lack of any experiential context. For students to whom ten years is literally a lifetime, references to millions or billions of years are simply unfathomable. Even worthwhile hands-on activities involving models of radioactive decay processes or physical time lines labeling geologic events don't always manage to break through this conceptual barrier.

The South Carolina Studies Curriculum Project provides students with a series of inquiry based investigations utilizing local case studies that emphasize the various interactions between natural and human history. These interdisciplinary lessons focus on places and topics that are familiar to many students and therefore generate more interest than typical textbook examples. After first establishing the concept of change through time in human history and culture, the same approach is then applied to local landscapes and local fossil collections. The series of lessons culminates in students creating a series of paleogeographic maps of their school region and composing an illustrated narrative explaining the various features and transitions associated with different periods of geologic time.